Italy’s state-owned nuclear decommissioning and radioactive waste management company Sogin has begun the demolition and dismantling of the steam generator shields in the reactor building of the Latina nuclear power station in in Lazio, south of Rome.

The work, which marks the beginning of the dismantling of the reactor building, began on 4 August, Sogin said.

The shields are the reinforced concrete structures that insulated from the outside the upper pipes, which connected the six boilers to the reactor building. Each shield is made up of two parts: an upper horizontal element connected to the reactor building and weighing about 145 tonnes, and a lower vertical element, coming out of the boiler, weighing about 50 tonnes.